posted 8 hours ago by catherine shuview allgallery viewreplay gallerylooking at the roster of tech’s most notable acquisitions is like opening a time capsule not just of companies, but of the attitudes that surrounded them. for example, facebook’s purchase of whatsapp makes total sense now, but when the deal was announced in 2014, a lot of people, especially in the u.s., didn’t quite grasp why a messaging app was worth $19 billion. this is a list of tech deals from the past half decade that were surprising because of their size, impact or seeming randomness. some have paid off, while others (cough*microsoft-nokia*cough) remain head-scratchers.